Hidden Moments
by lastjediprincess
Summary: The unwritten scenes of Luke and Mara. I know there's a billion of these out there, but it was just begging me to write it.


Alright, it's always bothered me how instamatic and screwed up Luke and Mara's romance was. I mean, you don't propose marriage before you have your first kiss. Just doesn't work like that. And Luke and Mara aren't the type who would take a commitment like that so lightly. So, even though there are about a billion of these out there, this is my version of the unwritten moments of Luke and Mara.  
  
There will be parts of this which take place sort of in the middle of scenes written in the various books out there. For these, I will put everything in the book in double stars. (**.**) and put down the book and the page numbers, to avoid plagiarism and all that jazz. If I forget, I guess someone could sue me, but all they'd get is approximately 7 mini marshmallows and my pink fish slippers.  
  
Which reminds me. Disclaimer: I don't own these people, and you're a friggin' moron if you though I did. Luke and Leia and all them belong to the Great Man in Flannel, Mara and Karrde and all them belong to the Almighty Zahn, and everyone else you've heard of belongs to someone else who is not me.  
  
Okeyday, I think I've babbled enough.  
  
Key: **.** something in one of the books *.* thinking/talking with the Force  
  
Chapter One Set during Heir to the Empire, right after p. 339 when Mara tells Luke about her past  
  
Luke picked up the tube of salve that Mara had thrown at him and walked over to the med kit. "You know, you really should get some sleep."  
  
"I'm fine," she growled from a few meters away, trying to find a position which allowed her to lean against a tree without upsetting the scratches on her shoulders.  
  
"This'll be the third night you've stayed awake. You need to be alert tomorrow."  
  
"I said I'm fine!" she snarled back.  
  
"No, you're not." Luke insisted. "You're getting fatigued, and we both know it. And you need sleep to heal that twisted ankle of yours and those new wounds."  
  
"Yes, mother, but there's one little detail you seem to be forgetting. If I'm asleep, who's going to keep the vornskrs away?"  
  
Ignoring the mother comment, Luke answered, "Artoo and I can guard. I'm a decent shot, and Artoo's sensors will help a little. And I'm not sleep deprived."  
  
"And this little scheme of yours just happens to require that I give you a charged weapon."  
  
"Oh, come on, Mara, be reasonable. If I'd wanted you dead, I'd have let the vornskr take care of it." He looked across and spoke in a voice one would use to comfort a scared animal. "I'm not going to hurt you."  
  
Mara's eyes narrowed into tiny slits as she glared at Luke. "You're a little late for that."  
  
Luke sighed in resignation and returned to treating the giant welt on his forehead. He rummaged through the med kit, searching for a certain ointment when he saw something. It was the small tube of stim pills Mara had been using to stay awake. They were white and round and looked pretty much like every other generic pill out there one the market.  
  
Exactly the same as, say, the sort of sleep-inducers that were standard in a med kit.  
  
He knew he probably shouldn't trick Mara into sleeping, and that it was a somewhat un-Jedi thing to do, but desperate times called for desperate measures. So while still treating his wound, so as not to rouse Mara's suspicion, he rummaged through the various bandages and med supplies until he found the small tube filled with sleep pills. Luke took a moment to notice that the tube of stim pills was only two thirds full, and thought of just how many of the things she must have already.  
  
Yup, she definitely needed some sleep.  
  
Dumping the stim pills out and putting them in one corner of the metal med kit, he spilled the sleep pills into his hand and filled the now empty stim pill tube up with sleep-inducers to about the same height it had been. He put the top back on the tube, finished treating his welt, and closed up the med kit.  
  
"Here," he said, walking over to Mara and handing her the tube. "If you're going to stay awake, you're going to need these."  
  
She swiped the tube from Luke with a glare, pried the top off with her thumb nail and shook one pill out, popping it into her mouth.  
  
About thirty seconds after swallowing, she knew that something was definitely wrong. Instead of the rush of energy one was supposed to get from a stim pill, Mara was getting sleepier. Struggling to keep her eyes open, she looked over at Luke, who had been watching her to see if she noticed anything wrong, and was looking a little suspicious. And then it clicked.  
  
These pills weren't acting like stim pills because they weren't stim pills. Skywalker had switched them with something else. She thought of the other pills that were standard in a med kit. But the ones she thought of weren't sleep pills.  
  
She was thinking of the suicide pills included in any med kit.  
  
"Damn it, you bastard!" she screeched, pulling herself to her feet and wobbling at the effect of the pill. She only had a minute left, if that, and she had better use it to fulfill the Emperor's last command. "You thought you'd switch those pills and get rid of me the easy way, huh? Well, I've got news for you. You're going down with me." She pointed her blaster at Luke and fired, but her aim was off and Skywalker had dodged. She managed to get off another 2 shots, all of which missed their target, before her legs gave out and she fell towards the ground. But before she could hit, she felt two strong arms catch her, and found herself looking straight into Luke Skywalker's face.  
  
"Mara," he said, soft and soothing, "I'm not getting rid of you. It's just a sleep pill." His hand gently rubbed her back. "You'll be fine."  
  
Mara looked up into his eyes and noticed how much warmer they seemed now, in real life, as opposed to how hard and cold they always looked in her dreams. She would have immediately shot that thought out of her mind, if her mind had been working properly and wasn't all fuzzed over. But it was fuzzed over, and all she could think about was how warm and caring those eyes were, and how gentle his embrace was, and wonder why he was acting this way to a woman who had sworn to kill him.  
  
"Why?" she asked, her voice coming out much softer and less commanding than she had wanted it to.  
  
"You need sleep, Mara. Badly. Otherwise, you're going to wind up hurting yourself."  
  
But that didn't answer the question that had been burning in Mara's  
mind for so long now.  
  
"Why do you care?"  
  
She never got to hear his answer, for at that moment her vision went black and her senses went numb as she fell into a deep, peaceful sleep.  
  
As soon as he saw Mara's eyes close and her breathing become steady, Luke set to work.  
  
First, he went over to the med kit and returned all the pills to their proper containers. He looked down at the stim pills in his hand and popped on in his mouth. After all, he was now on guard duty, and it was going to be a long night.  
  
He grabbed the med kit and brought it over to where he had laid Mara on her stomach. He opened the med kit again and pulled out a few bacta patches, wondering why Mara hadn't used them in the first place.  
  
Oh, yeah. She'd been playing tough and infallible for their whole jaunt through the forest. She probably thought that using bacta would ruin her image as a tough girl.  
  
Well, he wanted to tell her that there was almost nothing she could do to ruin that image with him now. There was no denying it, Mara had grit. Too much of it for her own good.  
  
Luke looked down at the scratches the vornskr's claws had left on her. They weren't serious, but they still looked painful, and could easily become infested. Mara had done a fair job of treating them, but had obviously run into the problems inherent in trying to do anything to your own back. And she had been far too proud to ask for his help.  
  
Well, now she was getting his help, whether she wanted it or not. It was for her own good.  
  
*Mara's right. I do sound like a mother,* he thought with a smile. Then he got down to business.  
  
He put bacta patches over the scratches on her shoulders, which required that he momentarily unzip the back of Mara's jumpsuit so he could access the scratches. Moments in which he prayed fervently to the Force and any other cosmic beings who might be listening that Mara was indeed fast asleep, cuz if she woke up then, he knew he would be dead before he could get out a single word of explanation. Luckily, the lioness slept on. Then he found a few long, thin sticks and used them, along with a cloth bandage, to splint Mara's twisted ankle to make sure she couldn't injure it worse.  
  
And then there was nothing more that he could do for her but to fold up his tunic, slide it under her head as a pillow, and let her rest. He picked up the blaster from where it had fallen from Mara's grasp, unhooked his lightsaber from her belt, and leaned up against a tree near Artoo.  
  
Now, when most people are confronted with hours of spare time and nothing to fill it with, they begin to think. And that was exactly what Luke did. He thought about the lat words Mara had said before the sleep pill's effects caught up with her.  
  
"Why do you care?" Her question was ringing in his head. Why did he care? So far, all she had done for him was shoot glares at him, speak angry words, and point a blaster at his back for two days. And she would probably kill him as soon as he was unnecessary. Maybe it would be smart to just pack up Artoo and leave her here. She wouldn't have to be defenseless. He could leave her blaster and just take his lightsaber. Even if it wouldn't do much good when he hit the city - and the Imperials - at least it would take him away from Mara.  
  
After all. It would be a death wish to remain with someone who wanted to kill him so badly.  
  
But that was where the idea broke down. Because after hearing her story, he wasn't entirely sure she wanted to kill him. Maybe she just wanted to quiet whatever inner demon the Emperor had left in her.  
  
Sure, part of his brain was telling him it was a hopeless cause. But it was the same part of his brain that had told him trying to turn Vader to the light had been a hopeless cause. He'd learned to ignore it long ago. And besides, he always had been a sucker for hopeless causes. Otherwise, why would he have joined the Rebel Alliance?  
  
He could help her, if she would let him. If he could earn her trust. And he wasn't going to do that by running off. And he felt it was his duty to help Mara through this inner turmoil. Both as a Jedi, and as the person who had caused her all this pain. Listening to her tell how her life had collapsed after the Emperor's death brought him emotions similar to the ones he had felt when he first heard how many people had died when he blew up the Death Star; he'd never thought of either as being a mistake, but that didn't change the fact that his actions had caused many people pain. Even if he hadn't directly killed the Emperor, he was partially responsible for his death.  
  
So it was decided. He would stay with Mara.  
  
With that, he turned his thoughts towards other things.  
  
Mara blinked her eyes open, her mind still in a drug-induced stupor. She moved her head slightly, trying to figure out why in stars name she was in a forest, when she heard Skywalker's voice call out.  
  
"Hey, you're awake."  
  
"Yeah," she said groggily, her voice still full of sleep, "Kinda."  
  
"You'll feel a little drowsy for a few minutes, but it should clear up soon." With that, he returned to helping that R2 unit of his onto the travois.  
  
Mara waited for a few minutes while the fog cleared from her head, then spoke again. "You know, you never answered my question last night." Skywalker turned to her and raised an eyebrow. "About why you even care."  
  
He didn't seem to have an answer to that. Finally, he just said, "I'm a Jedi. It's my duty to take care of people." She was about to say something when he walked over to her and offered his hand, saying, "We really should get moving." She unthinkingly slipped her hand into his and gripped it tight as he pulled her to her feet. "Oh," he said, walking a few meters away and picking up two objects. "Here." As he handed them to her, she recognized what they were, and almost let her shock show on her face.  
  
It was his lightsaber and her blaster.  
  
"I figured you were just going to demand them from me, so I might as well hand them over now," he said with an almost sheepish grin. Then he brushed past her to pick up his tunic from the ground, tied it around his waist, and picked up the poles of the travois. "Ready, Artoo?" he asked. The robot beeped an affirmative, and Luke turned to Mara. "Well," he asked, "shall we go?"  
  
"Yeah," she said absently, setting off as she attached Skywalker's lightsaber to her belt and put the blaster in it's holster at her side.  
  
*Damn it, Skywalker, you have got to be the most confusing man I have ever met.* 


End file.
